"Fracta vasa et gypsare et pelliculare Veteres consuevêre. Gypsantur et pelliculantur vasa plena ad aëra et sordes excludendas. Sincerum proprie mel sine cerâ, vel, quod magis huc pertinet, vas non ceratum: nam a ceraturâ odorem vel saporem trahit."
If these passages show the practice of sealing vessels with wax, they also show that the wax was what affected the flavour of the liquor.
Mr. Jeffcock plainly errs in saying that simplex "does not mean without a fold, but once folded." In Latin we have the series simplex, duplex, triplex, &c., corresponding precisely to the English single, double, treble, &c. And as single denotes a thing without a fold, so does simplex. Mr. Jeffcock's derivation would make simplex and duplex mean the same thing. Now duplex does not mean twice folded, but double.
Nor can I think that singulus can be "semel and termination." Ainsworth derives it from the Hebrew
סגלה
, which denotes whatever is peculiar or singular. It occurs to me to suggest whether it may not be derived from sine angulis. The term denotes unity—one person, one thing. Now the Roman mark for one is a straight line, and that is "that which lies evenly between its extreme points;" it is emphatically a line without bend, angle, or turning—"linea sine angulis:" angulus, like its Greek original, denoting any bend, whether made by a straight or curved line.
Though I cannot at this moment refer to any other Latin words compounded of sine, we have in Spanish simpar, without equal: sinigual, sinjusticia, sinrazon, sinnumero, sinsabor.
The delight I take in endeavouring to attain the correct meaning of the classics will, I hope, form some apology for the length of this Note.
S. G. C.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.